The Red Cell Gordon Conference has provided an informal atmosphere for in depth discussions related to the cell and molecular biology of hematopoiesis and clinically related issues. The meeting draws leading scientists and clinicians from around the world. The 1997 meeting should be especially noteworthy, given the major recent advances in several areas. Eight individual sessions are planned, each featuring an introductory talk, three full lectures and a selection of short talks in the following areas: 1. Structure, function and interaction of red cell membrane proteins. 2. Expression and function of erythrocyte proteins in non-erythroid cells. 3. Hematopoiesis I: Origin of hematopoietic stem cells. 4. Hematopoiesis II: Hematopoietic lineage commitment. 5. Signal transduction in hematopoietic cells. 6. Control of red cell gene expression l: Overcoming repressive effects of chromatin. 7. Control of red cell gene expression Il: Control of globin gene expression. 8. Red cell diseases. Two afternoon poster sessions will feature a mixture of presentations from all disciplines. Ten individuals with the most exciting posters will be invited to give a 15 minute presentation on the final evening (a very popular format which was adopted several years ago instead of having a keynote lecture). The diversity of interests and richness of discussions in previous Red Cell Gordon Conferences has led to numerous scientific collaborations and fostered new developments in these important areas of basic and clinical research.